


the truth in five acts

by nightswatch



Series: Aces Rookies in Love [4]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Coming Out, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-19
Updated: 2017-05-19
Packaged: 2018-11-02 16:31:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10948389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightswatch/pseuds/nightswatch
Summary: Kelly isn't scared of telling his parents that he's dating Stevens. But maybe he's a little scared of telling the Falconers. And maybe he's ridiculously scared of telling the rest of the world.





	the truth in five acts

**Author's Note:**

> The rookies are back, yay! Written for three prompts I got on tumblr.

I.

Kelly isn’t scared of telling his parents.

He books plane tickets for himself and Stevens, asks his mom to pick them up at the airport, and conveniently forgets to mention how long Stevens will be staying with them.

“Are you sure you don’t want to tell your parents first?” Kelly asks. “We could just drive up and–”

“No,” Stevens says.

Kelly can’t see his face, because he’s sorting his books into the shelves they got for the living room. Stevens signed a contract extension with the Falcs. He’s staying. Kelly is staying. And now that the season is over, Stevens is finally moving in. _Properly_ moving in.

He’s been staying with Kelly ever since he got traded to Providence, but now all his stuff is here and it’s all slowly fitting itself into all the empty spaces in Kelly’s apartment. Which is now Stevens’ apartment too. It’s _their_ apartment and they’re officially living together and Kelly is so happy that he wants to tell the whole world about it. And he would if the thought of telling the whole world didn’t scare the fuck out of him.

Stevens picks up two more books, pushes a few over on the shelf, shakes his head, and pushes them back to where they were before.

Kelly sits up, head tilted. “They looked better a centimeter to the right.”

Stevens turns around and rolls his eyes. “You said you wouldn’t be a little shit about how I organize my books.”

“I’m not being a little shit,” Kelly says and bats his eyelashes at Stevens.

Sighing, Stevens comes over to him and leans down to give Kelly a quick kiss. “Yes, you are.”

Kelly grabs Stevens’ shirt, making sure he can’t pull away, and Stevens smiles against his lips. They’ve had a couple of quiet days. They ignored Stevens’ boxes, and spent a lot of time in bed, and on the couch, kissing, and napping, and kissing a little more, until their clothes were on the floor, and then kissing again, lazily, until they eventually fell asleep.

Kelly knows that he’s about to burst that happy bubble. He avoided this conversation because they both needed some peace after two playoff rounds and after having Stevens’ stuff shipped to Providence and planning their summer. But they’re flying to Toronto next week and there’s more than enough time to drive to Massachusetts for a couple of days to talk to Stevens’ parents first. It’s just that Stevens has been avoiding the topic pretty efficiently.

“Stevie,” Kelly says, “are you worried about telling your parents?”

Stevens tenses and pulls back. Kelly lets go of his shirt.

“Because if you are–”

“Can we just tell your parents first?”

“Sure, yeah,” Kelly says. He stands up and wraps his arms around Stevens, even though they’re pretending that Stevens isn’t antsy about telling his parents. He is, and that’s okay, but Kelly wishes Stevens would talk to him. Maybe he could help. As long as he’s not talking about it, though, Kelly is just gonna do what he can without knowing what exactly is bugging Stevens.

Hugs usually work. Stevens pulls him close immediately, nuzzles into Kelly’s hair, and just like that they’re fine. For now.

So they’re really telling Kelly’s parents first. That’s okay.

Kelly doesn’t get nervous until he sees his mom waving at them at the airport. She’s wearing a Falconers cap and she’s brought a sign with their names on it. On the way home, she talks about the neighbors, and Kelly’s dad’s new gardening project, and about how glad she is that they both arrived together this time and– Well, Kelly’s gonna have to rewind a little here.

He drew up a plan.

They’d both arrive together, and they’d have dinner with Kelly’s mom and dad, and then Kelly would tell them. And it wouldn’t be a big deal. And after that they’d spend several days being extremely lazy, and they’d lie in the backyard, and they’d sit on the porch swing together, and they’d just… be exactly the way they are in their apartment in Providence.

But then Kelly’s mom asks, “Ezra, for how long are you staying? The guest room’s all ready for you, and you’re welcome to stay as long as you want, of course, it’s just that Julian never mentioned it.”

“Uh,” Stevens says.

“He’s staying for a bit,” Kelly says. He looks over his shoulder at Stevens, a little thrown off, because this isn’t part of the plan. They weren’t gonna say anything about this until tonight, but now it looks like The Plan is swiftly disintegrating.

“For a bit?” Kelly’s mom asks in the _Julian, stop bullshitting me_ voice.

“Actually,” Kelly says, and he can hear Stevens draw in a deep breath, “he’s gonna stay for about as long as I am staying.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s so nice to have someone around who actually enjoys helping me in the kitchen,” Kelly’s mom says and shoots Stevens a quick smile in the rearview mirror.

Stevens laughs and Kelly once again has to look over his shoulder, this time to glare at Stevens.

“Have you already been to your parents’ place this summer, Ezra? I suppose it’s easier for you to go see them now that you’re so much closer to home.”

“Not yet, we’re gonna swing by when we’re back in Providence.”

“Julian, you’re going too?”

“Yeah, that’s the plan.”

Another plan. Kelly can’t wait to see how wrong that one’s gonna go.

Kelly’s mom hums and Kelly can tell that she’s waiting for him to say it. She’s one of the smartest people Kelly knows, she’s probably figured it out already, so The Plan is officially dead and Kelly might as well just go for it.

“Stevens is probably not gonna sleep in the guest room,” Kelly says, and adds, a bit quieter, “if that’s okay.”

“Of course that’s okay.”

So far so good. Kelly doesn’t feel like he did it right, though. He clears his throat. “We’re together.”

Kelly’s mom smiles and reaches over to ruffle Kelly’s hair. “I’ll hug you kids when I’m not driving anymore, all right?”

“All right,” Kelly says.

One more glance over his shoulder, and now Stevens is smiling at him.

Kelly’s mom, as promised, hugs them as soon as they’re out of the car and makes them promise that they’ll give her at least some details, and she’s chattering about how happy Kelly’s dad is going to be that Kelly finally managed to find himself “such a lovely boy”. Maybe Kelly almost cries a little when he and Stevens are finally in his room and Kelly’s mom has left them alone so they can unpack and get settled.

“Kells, hey,” Stevens says and touches the small of Kelly’s back. “You okay?”

“Yeah, I am, it’s just… everything’s _fine_.”

“Yeah.”

“I knew it’d be fine, but I’m still so relieved? I mean, I still have to tell my dad, but… You know, when I came out to them, he just hugged me and told me that they’d always love me, like, I knew they wouldn’t be angry, they always made sure that we knew that we could tell them this sort of thing, but I was always so scared that he’d be disappointed somehow. And I know they like you, Mom was asking if you were coming by this summer before I even…” Kelly trails off when he realizes that Stevens won’t interrupt his rambling.

Kelly sits down on his bed, glad that he doesn’t have to ask Stevens to join him. He’s right there a second later, close and warm, his arm around Kelly. “When’s your dad coming home?”

“Six or seven,” Kelly says. He kisses Stevens’ cheek and then reaches out to give Stevens’ jaw a light tap so he’ll turn his head and Kelly can give him a proper kiss.

“When you boys are ready, I have some lemonade downstairs, and we have ice cream in the freezer,” Kelly’s mom shouts up the stairs.

“Just a minute,” Kelly shouts back.

They each get a glass of lemonade and Stevens offers to help with dinner, but Kelly’s mom practically shoves him out of the kitchen, Kelly at his heels, and says she doesn’t want to see them anywhere near the kitchen until dinner unless it’s to get ice cream. Once they’re outside and sitting on the porch swing, both of them lazy in the summer heat, neither of them is too keen on getting up anymore.

Kelly scoots close to Stevens and rests his head against his shoulder, eyes closed. He nods off for a bit, Stevens gently rocking the swing, his fingers slowly trailing up and down Kelly’s arm.

When Kelly wakes up, he’s still plastered against Stevens and he’s way too hot, so he sits up and stretches. Stevens has his phone in hand, his lips twitching.

“How many people did you send pics of me drooling?”

“Just everyone I know,” Stevens says, which probably means no one at all. Kelly is pretty sure that he wasn’t drooling anyway.

“What time’s it?”

“Half past six,” Stevens says. “I think I heard–”

The door slides open and Kelly dad comes outside, grinning broadly as he greets them, pointing at his Falconers shirt that he put on just for them. Kelly gets up to hug his dad, Stevens following, his steps a little slower.

“Dad,” Kelly says, “I want you to meet my boyfriend.”

“Your… oh,” Kelly’s dad says as he turns to hug Stevens. “I’d say welcome to the family, but you’ve been around for a while, haven’t you?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Stevens says, his face going red.

Kelly snorts.

“Well, let’s hope you stick around for a good long time,” Kelly’s dad says. He winks at Kelly and gives him a pat on the back. “Make sure he does. Anyway, dinner in ten minutes, all right?”

“Okay,” Kelly says. He waits until his dad is back inside, then he shakes his head and adds, “Both of my parents like you better than me.”

“That’s not true,” Stevens says.

“I was just kidding.”

“Yeah…” Stevens wraps his arms around Kelly from behind and kisses the back of his neck. “So… that’s done.”

That’s done and the world’s still turning. It went pretty much exactly the way Kelly imagined it; he knew there wouldn’t be any uncomfortable silences or surprised looks. “Two down and the rest of the world still to go,” Kelly says.

“I don’t think we have to tell everyone personally, though.”

Kelly laughs. “Yeah, thank God.”

Telling Kelly’s parents was easy. Maybe that’s why they started with them.

 

II.

“So…” Kelly says and glances at the GPS. Twenty more minutes until they arrive. He has to say something now because it doesn’t look like Stevens is going to. He’s been pretty quiet for most of the drive, staring out the window.

“I still don’t know,” Stevens says.

They’ve had this conversation so many times that Kelly has lost count. They had it late at night in Kelly’s old bedroom, and out on the porch swing, and at the lake, and back in their apartment in Providence, and then a few more times in between. They’re visiting Stevens’ parents this weekend and they’re not really sure when to share the news.

Stevens keeps going back and forth between, _They’ll be fine with it, so let’s just tell them right away_ , and, _But what if they’re not totally fine with it and the entire weekend ends up being horribly awkward?_ Kelly is trying to stay out of the decision-making process here, because this is for Stevens to decide. They’re his parents and he’s the one who’ll tell them, so he also has the final say.

“You still have some time to decide.”

“Actually…” Stevens shifts in his seat. “There’s a rest stop coming up, can you pull over?”

“Sure,” Kelly says. Maybe he should be worried, but he doesn’t say anything until they’re parked at the small rest stop. There are only two other cars parked at the other end of the parking lot.

Kelly turns off the radio and unbuckles his seatbelt, but he doesn’t get out of the car. He glances over at Stevens, unsure whether or not he should say something.

A few minutes tick by and since asking Stevens questions he clearly doesn’t know how to answer seems like the worst idea anyone has ever had, Kelly eventually just says, “We don’t have to tell them this weekend.”

“I know,” Stevens says.

“We can tell them whenever you’re ready.”

“I’m ready. I’m just not sure if they are.”

“But you really wanna tell them this weekend?”

“Yes.”

“Okay,” Kelly says and reaches out to take Stevens’ hand.

“I’ll just tell them at some point.”

“Yeah, just… whenever you want to. When the time seems right.”

Stevens nods.

“Do you just wanna stay here for a couple of minutes?”

Stevens nods again.

“Anything I can do?”

Stevens squeezes his hand. “No.”

“All right,” Kelly says and runs his thumb over the back of Stevens’ hand.

It’s a good thing they didn’t tell Stevens’ parents when exactly they’d be getting there, so they can stay here for a while. The other two cars leave, another one comes and goes again, two more arrive, then a third one, and then Stevens says, “Okay, let’s go.”

Kelly holds Stevens’ hand for the rest of the drive to his parents’ house.

At a certain point, Kelly knows the way even without the GPS. He’s been here a couple of times, slept on the couch in Stevens’ old room that has very little of Stevens left in it.

Stevens doesn’t come home as often as Kelly does, so his room is sort of… depressing. There are books on the shelves that clearly don’t belong to Stevens, there are no pictures on the walls, just some old hockey memorabilia in the closet – old jerseys and game pucks and trophies from when he was a kid.

When Kelly pulls into the driveway, Stevens’ mom is already waiting for them, sitting on the front porch with a book.

Kelly likes coming here. There’s flowers everywhere, all around the house and in pots on the front porch, and there’s an extraordinary amount of blankets and pillows in the house, and there’s photos everywhere, and magnets from every city Stevens has ever played in on the fridge, and Kelly just feels so welcome here, even though he sometimes gets the feeling that Stevens isn’t actually too keen on coming back. That sounds a bit harsh. Stevens isn’t too keen on coming back _for long_.

“My mom and I just start bickering when we spend too much time together,” Stevens always says. Two days are enough. Kelly knows because he once spent an entire week here and at the end of that week he found Stevens and his mom arguing about the right way to fold dishtowels.

The thing is, Stevens’ mom cares a lot, and because she cares so much, she sometimes asks too many questions and tries a little too hard to help. She also talks roughly ten times as much as Stevens. Even Kelly isn’t on that level.

Stevens’ stepdad comes out of the kitchen to greet them, an apron on, but quickly retreats again so he can supervise their dinner. They eat together that evening and they drink a bottle of wine out on the porch afterwards. Kelly keeps his distance and only touches Stevens when he feels like he can get away with it. They’ve been doing this ever since Stevens came to Providence, but after spending all that time with Kelly’s family it’s suddenly harder than it was before.

As the evening progresses, Kelly scoots a little closer to Stevens, but there’s still a little room between them. Too much room if you ask Kelly.

Stevens sometimes shoots a glance at Kelly, as if he’s asking, _Now?_

And Kelly nods, because he thinks that it’s what Stevens needs him to do, and sometimes Kelly notices that Stevens takes a deep breath like he’s about to say something, but in the end, he never does.

Stevens doesn’t mention it until they’re upstairs in his room. Kelly is already curled up in bed, right in the middle, smirking at Stevens, because he knows that he’ll complain about Kelly taking up the whole bed. But then Stevens just pushes the door shut and leans against it and doesn’t say a word.

Kelly frowns. “Do you want me to sleep on the couch?” He will if that’s what Stevens wants. They don’t share a room when they’re on the road with the team, or at least they weren’t last season. They probably won’t next season either, even if they tell Jack and the rest of the guys, it’s– Kelly forces himself to hit the brakes on that train of thought. This is about where he’s going to sleep tonight, not about their whole entire future.

Stevens shakes his head. “It’s fine.”

“Then what’s wrong?”

“I chickened out,” Stevens says. “Are you mad?”

“Stevie, why would I–”

“Yeah, no, I know you’re not mad,” Stevens says. He shuffles over to the bed and Kelly lifts up the covers for him. Stevens scoots into the middle of the bed as well and pillows his head on Kelly’s chest. “I’m kinda mad at myself.”

Kelly lightly scratches at the nape of Stevens’ neck. He doesn’t really know what to say, so he just mumbles, “I’m here no matter what,” and hopes that it’s enough.

Stevens tilts his head up and plants a sloppy kiss on Kelly’s jaw. “I’m telling them in the morning.”

“Whenever you’re ready.”

“Seriously, first thing tomorrow morning.”

“Okay,” Kelly says.

It takes Kelly some time to fall asleep that night. He refuses to sleep before Stevens does, mainly because he hates the thought of Stevens lying awake because he’s worried about tomorrow.

In the morning, Stevens doesn’t look nervous. It takes him ages to get out of bed as always, but when he sits up, he smiles and says, “I’m gonna do it now.” He gets out of bed and makes for the door. “Are you coming?”

“Wait,” Kelly says. “ _Right now?_ ”

“Yeah, right now.”

“Are we gonna get dressed before we tell your parents that we’re together?”

Stevens looks down at his college shirt and his boxers and scrunches up his nose. “Okay, yeah, maybe we should do that.”

They take turns in the bathroom and Kelly tries not to turn into an anxious mess while he’s waiting for Stevens to get ready. He texts Lundy, and when Lundy doesn’t reply, he texts Jeff, who’s most likely still asleep, and then he texts his mom, because he can tell her the truth, and she replies a moment later – _I’m sure it’ll be okay, love you both!!_

In the end, it happens like this: They go downstairs, and Stevens’ parents are already in the kitchen, his mom drinking coffee, his dad flipping pancakes. “Good morning,” Stevens says, and then he adds, without preamble, “Kells and I are dating.”

Kelly’s mom was right. It’s okay. And there’s a lot of hugging. And maybe Stevens’ mom is so surprised that she doesn’t know what to say for a moment, even though she’s the one who already knew that Stevens isn’t straight. She catches herself soon enough. Stevens’ dad, clearly a little taken aback at first, almost ends up burning a bunch of pancakes, because he’s too busy hugging Stevens and Stevens has to go and flip the pancakes while his dad gives Kelly a hug.

Kelly can see how relieved Stevens is. He can’t help but feel a little bit relieved himself.

He tries not to think about how it’s only gonna get harder from here on out.

 

III.

“Regarding your upcoming road trip… Are you excited about going back to Vegas?”

Kelly knew this question was coming. No one was expecting the Aces to trade him, and now every time Kelly goes back with the Falconers, it somehow becomes a huge deal again. “It’s always fun to go back, yeah.”

“Are you still friends with some of your former teammates?”

Kelly glances at Stevens, who’s walking across the locker room, only half-dressed. “Yeah, sure. Parser said he might invite me over for dinner, I hope he’s not gonna try to poison me.”

That earns him a round of chuckles.

Later that day, Jeff texts Kelly: _Dinner the day before the game? Come over around 6? And don’t worry, I won’t let Parse touch the food._

Kelly looks down at his phone, thinking. It sounds like Jeff is inviting him, just him, although when Kelly talked to Kent, he definitely said they should both come over for dinner. Him _and_ Stevens.

“Stevie?”

“What?”

“Swoops just asked–”

“Wait a second, I can’t hear you.” There’s some clattering in the kitchen, some quiet cursing, then Stevens pads into the living room, wearing the oldest pair of sweatpants he owns and Kelly’s Falcs hoodie, the sleeves rolled up. There’s a hole in his left sock.

Kelly grins at him. “Dude, that is such a look.”

“Shut up,” Stevens says.

“No, I’m serious.”

Stevens rolls his eyes and flops down on the couch next to Kelly. “What did Swoops say?”

“He was asking about dinner. And Parse invited both of us, and I guess Swoops knows that, but his text isn’t that straightforward… So I thought… Maybe I should just ask him if I can bring my boyfriend?”

“Oh,” Stevens says. “You wanna tell him?”

“I mean, we were talking about telling them, right?”

“Yeah, but I thought… Never mind.”

“What?”

“Nothing,” Stevens says.

Kelly sighs and leans closer to Stevens, nudging Stevens’ jaw with his nose. “Talk to me, Stevens.”

“I just thought we’d tell Jack first.”

“Right. You wanna–”

“No, it’s not like we had a plan or anything.”

“So?”

Stevens shrugs.

“Do you think we should tell Jack first?”

“I don’t know.”

“Listen, it was just an idea, I don’t have to say anything. I’ll just ask him if it’s still okay that you come too. Nothing about boyfriends, okay?”

Stevens lets out a small puff of breath.

“I’m asking too many questions, aren’t I?”

Stevens turns to look at him and smiles softly, and a little helplessly maybe, so that’s probably a yes.

“I just thought they might have some tips for us,” Kelly says.

Stevens chews on his bottom lip. “Yeah.”

Kelly leans back to give Stevens some space, maybe a minute or two to think about it, but Stevens follows and leans against Kelly’s chest. “Rearranging everything we have in the kitchen really took it out of you, huh?” Kelly asks.

“Stop chirping me about the kitchen, it’s a fucking mess.”

“Don’t you mean it _was_ a mess?”

“Nah, still is.”

Kelly laughs. He didn’t really plan ahead when he stuffed things into his kitchen cupboards, and then suddenly he bought more plates, but there wasn’t any room with the other plates, so he put them somewhere else. That’s what happened with pretty much everything he owns. And now that Stevens is here they have even more stuff and the other day Stevens got so angry about it that he started rearranging everything.

They’ll probably never be able to cook in that kitchen again, because everything’s all over the counters. Well, it’s more of a problem for Stevens, because he actually likes to cook. Kelly doesn’t mind ordering pizza for the rest of his life.

Stevens hums contently and nuzzles into Kelly’s shirt.

“Aw,” Kelly says and pats Stevens’ head. “You’re so cute.”

“Shhh,” Stevens says.

“What?”

“I’m not.”

“You are,” Kelly whispers, and Stevens’ lips twitch. “Really. The cutest. Ever.”

Stevens tries to hide his smile in Kelly’s shirt, but he’s not fooling anyone.

“Just forget about the kitchen for now, okay?”

“There’s stuff everywhere, I can’t leave it like that.”

Kelly sighs and hooks a leg around Stevens. “Forget about it for a couple of minutes at least?”

“I thought I was already doing that.” Stevens nudges Kelly’s side and he squirms. “Okay, so Jeff first, yeah?”

“I mean… I’m not worried about telling him. And I trust him.”

“I know. Me too.”

Kelly picks up his phone and writes, _is it cool if i bring my boyfriend? i guess parse already sort of invited him but yeah._ “Send?” he asks and shows Stevens his phone.

Stevens nods and hits send. “What if he thinks… I don’t know, that someone else is your boyfriend?”

“Who else would be my boyfriend?” Kelly asks. “Anyway, I’m pretty sure Swoops knows that Parse invited you over too. Although it’d be hilarious if he thought I was dating, I don’t know, _Lundy_.”

“Please, Lundy is the straightest dude I’ve ever met in my entire life.”

“No offense, but I also thought you were one of the straightest dudes I’d ever met in my entire life.”

“Good point,” Stevens says. “Maybe he’s really gonna think you’re dating Lundy.”

“No, shush.”

Stevens starts laughing. “You two got pretty cozy during that interview last week.”

“Stevie, no, stop.” Kelly wraps his arms around Stevens, laughing along with him. Once he’s managed to catch his breath he kisses the top of Stevens’ head and says, “I love you. A lot.”

Stevens looks up at him, his face flushed. “Love you too.”

Kelly’s stomach does a somersault like it always does when Stevens says _I love you_. He’s still busy smiling at Stevens when his phone buzzes.

“What did he say?” Stevens asks.

“Honestly, he doesn’t sound all that surprised? He says, _Yeah, of course Stevens can come_ ,” Kelly reads. “And he asks when that happened.”

Stevens snorts. “A while ago.”

“I’ll tell him that he’ll get the whole story when we’re in Vegas, okay?”

“Yeah.”

“And he also asks if he can tell Parse.”

“Sure.”

“Maybe we should just send Jack a text as well,” Kelly mumbles as he types his reply. “I mean, I’m not worried that he’ll be an ass about it, obviously, but he’s gonna think that it might be bad for the team.”

“You don’t know that.”

Kelly sends off his text to Jeff and puts down his phone. “I think I’m a little scared of telling Jack.”

“There’s no hurry,” Stevens says. Probably because he’s a little scared of telling Jack too.

 

IV.

They corner Jack after practice in late January.

Well, they don’t really _corner_ him. Kelly sends him a text in the morning and asks if Jack has a couple of minutes to talk after practice. He says it’s important and Jack says yes, although he also would have said yes if it was just a minor issue.

Kelly waits around after practice in an empty conference room, leaning against the wall, Stevens pacing back and forth in front of him. Jack was talking to the media earlier, so it’ll still take him a few more minutes before he joins them. Kelly actually needs those minutes to give himself a pep talk. Maybe he should have mentioned that he’s gay at some point. Maybe they shouldn’t dump all of this on Jack in one go. But Jack isn’t gonna be weird about this. He isn’t gonna be mad because they went an entire year without telling anyone. Seriously. Jack is a great guy. A fantastic captain. No need to worry.

Kelly’s palms are sweaty.

“Stevie…”

Stevens stops in his tracks. “Second thoughts?”

“No,” Kelly says. “Are you sure you want me to do the talking?” He has no idea why he even asks, because _of course_ Stevens wants him to do the talking, and that’s fine, except Kelly isn’t sure if he can string together a coherent sentence right now.

This is bigger than telling their parents, because when they told their parents, it pretty much stopped with them. Well, Kelly also told his sister. That was is it, though. After that they went some time without telling anyone. It’s bigger than telling Kent and Jeff as well, because those two are on a different team, they’re all the way in Vegas, and it stopped with them too.

Telling Jack is the first event in a chain reaction. Inevitably, after telling Jack, they’ll tell the team, and George, and… pretty much everyone else on the Falconers staff. And, sure, they’re still the ones who get to decide how fast all of that is gonna happen, but that’s why telling Jack feels like such a big thing. In the end, it’s not just gonna be Jack.

Stevens stares at him for a moment, then he says, “I’ll tell him.”

“No, I said I would.”

“You’re totally losing your shit because of this,” Stevens says dryly.

“Yeah,” Kelly says, nodding, “yeah, I am. And I don’t even know why.”

Stevens raises his eyebrows. _You seriously don’t know why?_

Kelly rolls his eyes. _Whatever, maybe I do_.

“It’s not too late to–” Stevens falls silent when the door behind them opens and Jack finally comes inside.

“Sorry, that took a little longer than expected,” he says to Kelly. Then he notices that Stevens is standing next to him. “Oh, hey. You both want to talk?”

Kelly only glances at Stevens, because he suddenly can’t remember how words work.

“Yeah,” Stevens says.

Jack nods at the table. “You want to sit down?”

Kelly shakes his head. They’ll get this over with quickly, no need to sit down.

“So, what’s this about?” Jack asks, his tone wary, when neither Kelly nor Stevens actually says a word. They talked about this every day this week and Kelly always said something like, _It’s fine, I’ll just say it._

The thing is, right now he doesn’t feel like he can _just say it_. He feels like he should have prepared some sort of speech. He feels like he’s going to need to explain himself and he’s completely unprepared, like this is some sort of test that he has to pass, a test he might fail if he says the wrong thing.

And he said a billion times that it was all perfectly okay, that he’d do the talking, and now he’s letting Stevens down and–

“Yeah, so, Kells and I are a couple,” Stevens says. He just went and ripped off the band aid.

Jack’s eyes widen ever so slightly and of course it takes him a moment to process what Stevens told him, because they dropped this on him without a warning, but Kelly kinda panics. And when Kelly panics, his impulse control goes down the drain and he instantly starts babbling.

“Listen, it’s really not a big deal, nothing’s gonna chance. And it works, it’s been working for ages, this isn’t gonna affect the team negatively or anything, it’s just that we want to tell the team, eventually, because hiding this until the end of time is just… not ideal, I guess. So we thought we’d start with you. And we’ve been together for a year, so it’s definitely serious and–”

He sort of just called their relationship serious, which it is, but they’ve never talked about that before, so now he’s basically digging himself _two_ holes. Which is. Fantastic.

“And we hope that this is okay,” Kelly finally finishes. He can’t look at anyone right now, so he’s just staring down at his sneakers.

Someone – Stevens – nudges his arm. It’s a quiet _breathe_ , a quiet _I’m here, you’re not alone_.

“Of course,” Jack says. “If you want to tell the team, I’ve got your back, one hundred percent. You might want to consider telling George too.” He smiles. “She has a lot of experience with this sort of thing.”

Kelly finally talks himself into actually looking Jack in the eyes. He said it’s okay. So maybe Kelly’s heart will get the memo soon and stop trying to beat its way out of his chest.

“Yeah, we’ve definitely… considered that,” Stevens says.

“I know it can get pretty overwhelming.” Jack says. “But thanks for telling me. If you want me to talk to the guys, or if I can help in any way, you know where to find me.”

“Thanks, Jack.”

“So it’s been a year, huh?” Jack is looking at Stevens now. “So you were already together when you got traded here?”

“We were trying to figure things out,” Stevens says, and gives Kelly a small smile.

“It made things easier that he wasn’t a billion miles away anymore,” Kelly says. He doesn’t mention how worried he is that one of them might have to move again. Jack can’t do anything about that, so for now they’ll just have to hope that they’ll both get to stay for a little while longer.

Jack nods. “You should really tell George. I don’t think she’s ever had to deal with a couple on the team, but…” He trails off and shrugs.

As far as Kelly is concerned, there’s nothing to shrug about here. It’s a valid concern. Dating a guy is one thing, but dating a guy on the same team could mean trouble. For several people.

“She might voice some concerns,” Jack says, clearly choosing his words carefully, “but ultimately she’ll be on your side, I can promise you that much.”

“Yeah, sure, we’ll tell her,” Kelly says. “I just have to lie down for like a week first.”

Jack pats his shoulder with a sympathetic smile. “Take as much time as you need. But hiding it is hard, I know that.”

“Tell me ‘bout it,” Kelly mutters. It’s not like he wants to make out with Stevens in the middle of the locker room, but he doesn’t want to focus so much on what he can or can’t do and say around Stevens when they’re at the rink anymore. He just wants to stop lying.

Well. He wants to stop lying to at least _some_ people.

Stevens clears his throat. “Yeah, so… We don’t want to keep you or anything.”

“Let me know if there’s anything I can help you with.”

There’s another round of _thank you_ s before Jack leaves, then they’re alone again and Stevens lets out a long breath.

“That went well, eh?” Kelly says. For some reason, he feels like he’s about to burst into tears and he’d really rather not.

“It did,” Stevens says and takes Kelly’s hand. “Your hands are shaking.”

“Thanks,” Kelly whispers.

“Let’s go home, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Give me the keys,” Stevens says. “I’ll drive.”

Kelly hands over the keys. “I don’t deserve you. Not even a little bit.”

“Don’t be so dramatic.”

Stevens gives him a quick kiss before he lets go of Kelly’s hand and nudges him out the door and back into the real world.

 

V.

“This is actually the worst idea I’ve ever had.”

Stevens doesn’t reply, he just smiles, his eyes still closed. _Asshole_.

“Stevie.”

“Hm?”

“It’s a horrible idea.”

“Okay,” Stevens says.

“You’re not helping.”

“Well, I’m not gonna make you.”

Kelly sighs and flops down next to Stevens. They’re in his parents’ backyard. It’s the middle of summer and the sun’s dipping low and earlier today they spread a blanket under a tree and they stayed there. Kelly’s mom and dad are gone for the weekend, so they have the house to themselves.

Kelly’s mom left them some food in the fridge and Stevens made them a fruit salad earlier and Kelly dropped all his pineapple bits in Stevens’ bowl and they took a nap in the shade and they were terribly lazy and only moved to kiss the other wherever they could reach without moving too much and Stevens is currently not wearing a shirt, which means it’s a pretty perfect day so far. Kelly doesn’t want to ruin it.

He trails his fingers down Stevens’ stomach, to the waistband of his shorts and back up again.

“Stevie,” he says again.

“I told you I’m okay with it, I’ve had weeks to get used to the thought, now you have to decide if you’re okay with it too,” Stevens says.

“I am.”

“If you are, post the picture.”

“I can’t.”

“Then do it tomorrow.”

They had this exact conversation yesterday. They took a picture, him and Stevens sitting next to each other on the porch swing, Stevens grinning at the camera, looking ridiculously handsome as always – it’s the striped shirt – and Kelly kissing his temple. That picture was supposed to end up on Kelly’s Instagram account.

They’re not gonna make a statement. They’re just gonna… stop hiding it.

They’ve told everyone who matters personally. Their families. Their friends. The Falcs. They told Jack’s husband when they were invited over for dinner, they told the team, first Lundy, then Snowy and Tater and Hawk, one by one, sometimes with Jack looming in the background, until everybody knew.

George took the news in stride. She did tell them that she wasn’t expecting them to break up but wouldn’t play mediator if they did and that she’d expect them to _act like professionals_. She helped them a lot, though, Jack was right about that. She talked them through their options and in the end Kelly just said, “What if do it like all the other guys with their girlfriends? Just start posting pictures with them in it on Instagram or whatever? Why do we have to make a statement?”

So here they are. Not making a statement. But not posting any pictures either, because Kelly is a huge fucking coward.

Yesterday he said he’d do it today. Really. Only now that it’s today, doing it tomorrow does seem like a pretty good idea. It doesn’t help that Stevens won’t tell him to just do it already.

“Stop staring at me,” Stevens mumbles.

“I’m not.”

Stevens cracks an eye open. “See, you totally are, I knew it.”

“How’d you know?” Kelly asks and leans down to kiss him.

Stevens only hums in reply and grabs Kelly by the hips so he can flip them over. Kelly drops his phone on the blanket. The Great Instagram Crisis can wait. Stevens kisses him until he’s a little breathless, hands slipping under Kelly’s shirt, palms hot on his skin. It’s been like this all day, soft touches, and lazy kisses, and touches that held promises for later, and kisses that wished for more.

Kelly doesn’t mind waiting until they’re back inside, he loves the anticipation, loves the way Stevens looks at him, loves that twinkle in his eyes.

“If we didn’t have neighbors…”

“You’ve said that at least five times today,” Stevens says and laughs and bumps his nose against Kelly’s. “Wanna go inside?”

“Yes,” Kelly says. He stretches and nearly shoves his phone off the blanket. “Actually, not yet.”

“Ah, that…” Stevens clambers off Kelly and lies down next to him so they’re face to face. He gives Kelly’s chin a gentle tap. “You know, I love your freckles.”

“Oh, you…”

Stevens trails his thumb over Kelly’s cheek as Kelly unlocks his phone and reopens his Instagram app. He selects the photo. No filter for this one. He writes the caption – _just wanted to let you know that I have the best boyfriend of all time_ – and he tags Stevens and then he stares at the _Share_ button.

It won’t be easier tomorrow.

He shoots Stevens one last look – _last chance to say no_. Stevens is perfectly calm. Kelly isn’t sure how Stevens found telling his parents more scary than this. “Ready?” Kelly asks. Just to be sure.

Stevens nods.

It takes less than a second to post it. It’s out of Kelly’s hands now. Literally. Because Stevens gently takes away his phone.

“What are you doing?”

“Turning it off,” Stevens says and does exactly that before he turns off his own phone as well.

“What if someone calls? Like, someone important.”

“Then you’ll call back tomorrow. Everyone knows we’re here, they can just call your parents’ house. It’s gonna be okay.” Stevens puts down both their phones and tugs Kelly close. “I’m proud of you.”

“Are you still gonna be proud of me if all of this goes horribly wrong?”

“Sure.”

“Promise?”

Stevens kisses him. “I promise.”

“Good…” Kelly gives Stevens a poke. “Hey, Stevie, one more.”

Stevens smirks and leans in to give him another kiss.

“Stevie?”

“Hm?”

“Tell me it’s gonna be fine one more time?”

“It’s gonna be fine,” Stevens says, and Kelly can tell that he means it. Even if it all goes to shit from here on out, they’ve made it this far. Kelly knows that not everything they’ll see and hear when they turn their phones back on will be positive. Some of it is going to hurt.

Kelly looks over at Stevens, at the fondness in his eyes, and the tiny scar on his cheek, and the soft smile on his face and it’s all so familiar. Because Kelly is the guy who gets to wake up next to Stevens pretty much every morning. There aren’t enough words to describe how lucky he is, that the gets to have this, that they’re both on the same page and that they’re committed to this, no matter what happens next.

One way or another, it really will be fine. They’ll make sure of it.

**Author's Note:**

> My tumblr is @zimmermaenner if you wanna drop by!
> 
> Kudos and comments are very much appreciated :)


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